(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recovery and retrieval system for an unmanned, water-borne vehicle.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Small unmanned systems such as unmanned surface or undersea vehicles, referred to herein as unmanned, water-borne vehicles (UWBVs) are being considered to perform more and more missions currently performed by the UWBV's mother ship. Though small in comparison to manned vehicles, these unmanned vehicles can weigh up to several thousand pounds.
Current launch and recovery techniques from large surface ships for these smaller unmanned systems are manually intensive. The ship usually must slow for significant periods of time to allow the UWBVs to be launched or recovered. Alternatively, the UWBVs may have to be recovered onto inflatable, or other auxiliary boats that are manned and launched from the mother ship.
Onboard the auxiliary boat, personnel must physically lift the UWBVs from the water. Depending on the sea state and/or the hostile nature of the deploying environment, launch and recovery from auxiliary boats places personnel in harms way and can significantly impact large ship positioning and operations.
Current and planned automated recovery systems involve outfitting the mother or recovery ship with a recovery arm and capture head that can move rapidly in response to tracked relative vehicle motions. However, due to the limited range of motion of the arm and head, operation is limited to low sea states, even though recovery is often required in high sea state conditions.
A need therefore exists for a system and method that can be used to launch and recover UWBVs from the mother ship without the need for auxiliary boats and having the ability to be used in comparatively high sea state conditions.